User:CaroleHenson/Autism Cymru/notes

Checklist
Checklist of what has been reviewed:
 * Intro ✅
 * 1 History ✅
 * 2 Vision ✅
 * 3 Staff - 3rd # done
 * 4 Membership
 * 5 Autism Cymru activities
 * 5.1 Awareness
 * 5.2 Other organizations
 * 5.3 Governmental and justice organizations
 * 5.4 Research
 * 5.5 Education - 1st # 1st sent done
 * 5.6 Seminars
 * 5.7 Publications
 * 6 Autism Initiatives and C-Saw services ✅
 * 7 Housing opportunities
 * 8 Training and employment
 * 7 Housing opportunities
 * 8 Training and employment

Politics site ✅
1. ref name=Politics> Autism Cymru.] Politics.co.uk Retrieved 7 September 2012.
 * "Wales' National Charity for Autism". - keep this phrasing, in quotes (Intro) ✅
 * practitioner-led - rephrased to "The organization was established by practitioners" (Intro) ✅
 * set up in 2001 - rephrase to "founded in 2001" (History) ✅
 * "to improve the lives of people in Wales with an autistic spectrum disorder and their families." - keep this phrasing, in quotes (History) ✅
 * dedicated national brief in Wales and in the projection of Welsh practice within and outside Wales. - to better meet the needs of the autistic community in Wales. They also wish to model practices that may be used anywhere in the world. (Intro) ✅
 * Vision Statement - Autism Cymru takes the view that each person with an autistic spectrum disorder in Wales should receive a service appropriate to their assessed needs, whatever their age and wherever they live. In order to achieve this Autism Cymru actively promotes at both national and local levels the practice of strategic, collaborative, multidisciplinary partnerships and highly focused co-ordination of services to people with autistic spectrum disorders and their families. - keep this phrasing, in it's own section in quotes (Vision) + some comes across in the (Intro) and in (Staff 3rd #)✅
 * seek to influence major policy change - rephrase to "to establish public policy" (Intro) ✅
 * via collaborative practice, education and training, research and awareness raising. - rephrase to " through education and training, research, awareness raising and collaborative efforts" (History) ✅
 * All its trustees live within Wales - 
 * staffed by Welsh-based practitioners -  rephrase to "and is staffed by" - to go with "The organization was established < > practitioners (Intro)✅
 * offices in Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Wrexham. -  with offices in Cardiff, Wrexham, and Aberystwyth (Intro) ✅
 * operates or manages the following websites:-
 * The All Wales Autism Resource, -
 * which provides bilingual infomation for those with autism in Wales.-
 * Autism Connect, the worldwide portal for autism with over 35,000 members worldwide. -  All rephrased to: Autistic Cymru manages the website for AWARes - the All Wales Autism Resource, which provides information for Welsh and English speaking autistic people in Wales. (Education) ✅

Autism Cymru is "Wales' national charity for autism" with offices in Cardiff, Wrexham, and Aberystwyth.[1] The organization was established and is staffed by practitioners and collaborates with Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC), an research institute within Cardiff University. They also work with the Welsh government, Autism Speaks and Autism Initiatives UK to affect the service delivery to people on the autism spectrum to establish public policy to better meet the needs of the autistic community in Wales. They also wish to create best practices that may be used anywhere in the world.[1][2][3]
 * Intro

There were a number of things kept in quotes here, but going forward there will probably be little use of quotations (i.e., I was a bit too liberal here with the use of quotes, but they are for targeted purposes, so not so much going forward).
 * General comment

psych site: WARC ✅
ref name=WARC> WARC Psych.cf.ac.uk Retrieved 7 September 2012.
 * Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC) was initiated through a unique collaboration between Autism Cymru and Autistica, the School of Psychology, Cardiff University and the Welsh Assembly Government.  mentioned that WARC is a collaborating partner (Intro) ✅

-  - It works with partners, such as Autism Initiatives and Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC), who have congruent objectives regarding training, service and research (History paragraph 1) ✅
 * General comment
 * their mission seems to be in synch with Autism Cymru (work with practioners, improve service, improve policy, collaborate)
 * works on research, training and awareness building

Autism Initiatives
ref name=AIW> Autism Initiatives Wales Autism Initiatives Wales Retrieved 7 September 2012.


 * Our valuable partnership with Autism Cymru - Wales’ national charity for Autism spectrum condition - is integral to the development of services.
 * - <font color=' #3366CC'> mentioned that WARC is a collaborating partner (Intro) ✅
 * - <font color=' #3366CC'> - It works with partners, such as Autism Initiatives and Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC), who have congruent objectives regarding training, service and research (History paragraph 1) ✅
 * Autism Cymru’s primary task is to influence policy and practice on behalf of the autism community throughout Wales.
 * - <font color=' #3366CC'> work with.... (govt, AS, AI, etc) ...to establish public policy that will better meet the needs of the autistic community in Wales. (Intro) ✅
 * Regulations and Standards ask for autism services to be person centred, and we can display our commitment to this approach through our policies, procedures, assessments and training. Our infrastructure can support service development, and we have a sizable staff team that we can deploy in times of crisis or to support other new developments.
 * - <font color=' #3366CC'> 1st, 2nd and 3rd bullet also reflected in this statement, part of which also came from Politics: Together with many other national and regional autism organizations, Autism Cymru provides a person-centered services approach through training, assessments, policies, and procedures. Through collaboration, such as with Autism Initiatives who have an infrastructure and adequate staff resources, they are able to support current and future initiatives. (Staff 3rd paragraph) ✅
 * They have worked closely with the Welsh Assembly to present a concept to ministers that culminated in the all-Wales Strategy for ASD - a strategy supported by Autism Initiatives. - -possible addition  <font color=' #3366CC'>  -
 * Autism Initiatives also supported Autism Cymru and Autism Speaks’ successful efforts -possible addition
 * to establish the Cardiff University Chair in Autism Research
 * development of a Wales Autism Research Centre. (WARC)
 * AI comments: Our proposals for the future are to develop more partnerships in order to provide supported living projects, respite and short break services for people with autism throughout Wales. There is currently a shortage of support in Wales, and by developing partnerships with housing associations, Local Authorities and other trusts, we hope to provide quality housing solutions. -possible addition  <font color=' #3366CC'>  add something to suppport Hugh Morgan's comments regarding housing opportunities?
 * C-SAW services:
 * C-SAW’s merger with ourselves serves to underpin existing and develop new services to people with autism in Wales which include…...
 * Holiday Club
 * C-SAW runs a successful holiday club during school holiday’s for children aged 8-16 who have a diagnosis of an Autistic Spectrum Condition and is the only provision of its kind in North Wales. It is in high demand and we are currently limited to the days we can offer parents. The children who attend enjoy a range of structured, fun activities throughout the day.
 * Young Persons Social Group for ages 16 to 25
 * Our Young Persons social group is for people between the ages of 16-25 who have an ASC. The group meets three times a month and takes part in a variety of activities.
 * 25 Plus Social Group Denbighshire
 * A 25 plus Social Group for people aged 25 and over with an Autistic Spectrum Condition has been funded through the DCC Autism Strategy money.
 * Counselling Service
 * We offer a counselling service for parents and carers of people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions. This service is provided free of charge. Various venues are used at present.
 * Coffee Mornings
 * Coffee Mornings provide an opportunity for parents of children with an Autistic Spectrum Condition to meet quarterly for coffee and a chat and a chance to meet with people and share ideas.
 * ASC Outreach Service
 * In liaison with relevant local authority personnel this service aims to improve direct service provision for families and service users, to enable the development of more autism friendly and autism specific services.
 * Young Persons Service
 * Our Young Persons Service offers help with transition issues that may arise between childhood and becoming an adult. The service offers information, advice & signposting on transition issues to parents, carers and professionals.
 * Trampoline sessions
 * We run a series of trampoline sessions, for children with an ASC. This service is held every Saturday in Prestatyn Leisure centre.
 * In liaison with relevant local authority personnel this service aims to improve direct service provision for families and service users, to enable the development of more autism friendly and autism specific services.
 * Young Persons Service
 * Our Young Persons Service offers help with transition issues that may arise between childhood and becoming an adult. The service offers information, advice & signposting on transition issues to parents, carers and professionals.
 * Trampoline sessions
 * We run a series of trampoline sessions, for children with an ASC. This service is held every Saturday in Prestatyn Leisure centre.
 * Trampoline sessions
 * We run a series of trampoline sessions, for children with an ASC. This service is held every Saturday in Prestatyn Leisure centre.
 * We run a series of trampoline sessions, for children with an ASC. This service is held every Saturday in Prestatyn Leisure centre.

- <font color=' #3366CC'> Summarized the services into: Partners of Autism Cymru, Autism Initiatives and C-SAW in North Wales, provides services for children and adults through creative approach and lifelong support. C-Saw, through their partnership with Autism Initiatives provides social activities and services. Three social clubs — grouped by age ranges 8 to 16, 16 to 25, and 25 and up — provide opportunities to socialize, build confidence and gain life skills. There is also a quarterly coffee mornings club for parents. Services offered by C-Saw include counselling, community outreach, transitional program for young people into adulthood, seminars and physical activities. (Autism Initiatives and C-Saw services) ✅

Generally the list of services is something that should be in an article about C-Saw or Autism Initiatives - but since there's no wikipedia article for either of them, it's ok to have them here - just summarized and people can go to the AI link for more info.
 * General comment

Autism-Europe ✅
I don't see anything on this page about Autism Cymru, so I removed the citation. I verified that they are in the external links, though.

Plaid MEP gives Autism Cymru a European platform

 * Plaid Cymru MEP and President, Jill Evans, has organised a top level meeting with the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy to discuss the pioneering Welsh Autism strategy.
 * At the meeting in Strasbourg on Wednesday 18th April, Hugh Morgan OBE, the Chief Executive of Autism Cymru, will present the strategy, which is the first of its kind in the world. The aim of the meeting is to develop partnership work with organisations across Europe to share experience and expertise from Wales.
 * Ms Evans said, "The work that Autism Cymru has done in developing the national strategy is outstanding. It came about as a consequence of Plaid being in government and was launched in 2008. It was one of a number of initiatives to support those living with autism, such as establishing a support website, support targeted specifically at adults and awareness raising and training for advocacy personnel. "It is the first national autism strategy to be launched in the world. I hope that Commissioner Dalli will support us in ensuring that countries across the European Union benefit from the pioneering work done in Wales. We are very proud that Wales has led the way in addressing the needs of people who live with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It is very important now that we share the experience and expertise we have with other autism organisations".
 * Hugh Morgan OBE, Chief Executive of Autism Cymru, said, “People with autism and their families comprise 1% of the total population of Europe and deserve the best support and opportunities in order to make valued contributions to today’s society. Our task is to turn these aspirations into reality. Since the launch of the Welsh Government’s ASD Strategic Action Plan for Wales in 2008 big steps have been made towards our aim of making Wales a truly ‘autism-friendly’ country. What has become apparent during this amazing journey is that the Welsh policy model for autism is in advance of the approach taken by many, if not all, nations in the world and as a result the reputation and influence of Wales is quickly growing on the global stage of autism. “I am therefore extremely grateful to Jill Evans for enabling me on behalf of Autism Cymru to meet with the European Commissioner and also to Jill and her fellow MEPs for working in partnership in order help us to project the Welsh model for autism on the European stage. I now look forward to the opportunities to constructively progress the cause of autism throughout Europe alongside our partners, especially those in the Celtic Nations Autism Partnership and Autisme-Europe”

Information in the article:<font color=' #3366CC'> On a larger scale, Autism Cmyru works with foreign organizations, like Autism-Europe.

Wales spearheads autism research

 * Walesâ€™s pioneering work in autism has been reinforced with the appointment of a Cardiff University professorship dedicated to researching the condition.
 * Wales is the first country in the world to have a national autism strategy.
 * The Welsh strategy involves a â€œwhole-nationâ€ approach combining high quality services and research into the disorder.
 * Professor Susan Leekam, a developmental psychologist who has been studying autism for the last 20 years, has been appointed Chair in Autism Research at the School of Psychology.
 * The new Chair at Cardiff is part of that approach, and is supported by the Welsh Assembly Government and the two charities Autism Cymru and Autism Speaks.
 * Professor Leekam said: â€œI am delighted to receive this prestigious appointment of Chair of Autism at Cardiff University. This is a unique academic post with enormous scope to develop advances in psychological research both nationally and internationally.â€
 * The Head of the School of Psychology, Professor Dylan Jones said: â€œThe School has a full range of skills and resources to support the new post, including expertise in emotional development, in genetics and in brain structure and function through the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre.

Information in the article:<font color=' #3366CC'> It was the world's first charity organization that created the concept of a government led national autism strategy and encouraged the Welsh Assembly Government to implement it. It also brought about the Wales Autism Research Centre (WARC) which is part of the department of psychology in Cardiff University, the first named professorial chair in autism in Britain. It also created the world's first national web-based information service (this source)

called awares.org for autistic people and their families.

Since then, England and Scotland started to follow the example due to the success in Wales. As a member of the Celtic Nations Autism Partnership, it works closely with its partner organization which also focus on autism, including: Scottish Autism, Autism Northern Ireland and the Irish Society for Autism.

History section - close paraphrase ✅

 * It has brought in over £12 million in the past few years of new and ring-fenced funding for autism in Wales from government and research bodies. -- <font color=' #3366CC'> Together, these two initiatives alone have brought in over £12 million of new and ring-fenced funding for autism in Wales from government and research bodies over the past few years. I tried to work on this a bit - but looking at them side by side I see it needs a bit more work to not have the same tone as the author - it pretty much is just shuffling the words.

History section - last paragraph ✅
-- <font color=' #3366CC'> The charity has sponsored the annual AWARes on-line conference for autism since 2006 (History, last paragraph ✅ -- <font color=' #3366CC'> . Autism Cymru Works closely with Welsh emergency services, helping developed the Attention Card or Autism Alert Card which is an identity card used by autistic individuals to effectively communicate with the police officers. It has been enforced in all Four Welsh Police Forces; further expansion of the usage of Attention card into other emergency services was planned to be enforced in 2012 Reworded a bit: -- <font color=' #3366CC'>  The Attention Card programme was developed with Welsh emergency services and is being used by the police forces in Wales and during 2012 will be extended to other emergency services.
 * Since 2004, the charity has run the Wales Autism International Conference in Cardiff and from 2006 the annual Awares on-line conference for autism.
 * We work extensively with the emergency services in Wales, with our Attention Card operated by all four Welsh Police Forces, and further very significant developments across the emergency services will come into place during 2012.

Politics - Shirely article

 * Following wide consultation in Wales by The Shirley Foundation during the late 1990s, Autism Cymru, a dedicated national Welsh charity was established with a start-up grant from the Foundation. -- <font color=' #3366CC'> Autism Cymru was set up in 2001 with a start-up funding from The Shirley Foundation.